TOYOTA C-HR - environmentally friendly, but practical?
Nowadays, when we talk about organic products, we mostly mean food. Let us imagine an elderly farmer who, with his own hands and with the aid of a rotting hoe, has dug up the potatoes we are about to buy. However, sometimes some statements have a broader meaning, and for a product to be called "organic", it does not have to be a food product. It is enough that it meets some of the prescribed conditions: it must be produced from natural ingredients, associated with the natural environment, healthy, not disturbing the balance of the environment and meeting its requirements. Although the first four conditions do not apply to motorization, the last point has a direct bearing on it. So I came up with the idea to test what the farmer from our previous ideas would have to say about ecological motorization? So I drove a trusted Toyota C-HR to a picturesque town in the south of Lesser Poland, on the edge of the Low Beskids, to explore it.
One who lives daily in a crowded city always feels the same when he comes to the countryside. Time passes more slowly, dirty shoes, soiled clothes or hair fluttering in the wind suddenly cease to bother. Biting into an apple, we are not surprised if its peel glows in the dark. Following this example, I decided to contrast modern technologies with clean ecology and find out the opinion of people who live as environmentally friendly as possible every day.
Do you need a hybrid in the countryside?
Arriving at the place, I showed several friends Toyota C-HR. We did not discuss the issue of appearance. I assumed that a drivetrain designed with environmental considerations in mind would be of most interest. Meanwhile, to my surprise, the interlocutors wanted to talk about the engine as little as possible, and my whole struggle to continue the conversation on this topic ended with one statement: “Of course, it’s not that I don’t want to talk about it, because I don’t know what it is. The hybrid, being quite sophisticated and, above all, an environmentally friendly power plant, is suitable not only for the city to reduce air pollution. We buy a hybrid from us because we want it." Strongly interested, I asked for clarification of this statement. As it turns out, people who buy a hybrid car in rural areas do not do so to demonstrate their "greenness" or save on this bill. Of course, we can say that these are some “side effects” that do not bother anyone and do not even please anyone, but this is not the basis for their decisions. This may surprise many, but the reason is very simple. It's all about convenience. I won't discover America if I say that sometimes in the countryside there is only one store within a few miles, let alone gas stations. Hybrid cars are a kind of "cure" for this ailment - we are talking primarily about plug-in hybrids that are charged under the house. Therefore, a hybrid drive outside the city allows you to save not only financially, but above all in time.
We then focused on the interior of the car. Here, unfortunately, opinions are divided. For some, the interior of the Toyota C-HR seemed too extravagant due to a fairly modern dashboard, bold lines and colors, and for some it was made to order.
However, respecting the condition that we are not talking about appearance, I asked the key question: “What if you had such a car every day? What do you like about it? “As a result, everyone began to test completely different properties of Toyota. However, after a while, everyone came to the same conclusions.
The space for the rear passengers attracted the most attention. While the C-HR offers plenty of legroom and headroom, small side windows, a rather steeply raked rear window, and black headlining optically reduce passenger space. All this means that, despite the absence of disease, we are able to feel what claustrophobia is.
In turn, what surprised everyone was the amount of space in the trunk. While the size of the car doesn't seem to warrant a top spot on the list of the best family cars, I was surprised myself. The trunk, which offers us the right shape and a fairly low-slung floor, means that traveling four adults with luggage is no problem for Toyota. Thanks to flat batteries, the trunk is not only a small compartment for storing groceries from a hypermarket, but - as we checked - it certainly holds several tens of kilograms of potatoes or apples.
The downside, however, is the inability to have a hybrid version of the 4x4 drive, which would have been used more than once in the mountainous areas of the village. The advantage is the maneuverability of the engine - despite four people on board and a full trunk of suitcases, the C-HR performed well on the slopes. In addition, the handling, which despite the higher center of gravity, even with an additional heavy load, sometimes contributes to tighter corners and a slightly sportier ride.
Summarize. Sometimes our ideas about certain things are not true. The Toyota C-HR is a perfect example of this. A hybrid doesn't always feel better in the city, and small equipment does not mean small opportunities.
